


Notes

by Lilyliegh



Series: Arc-V Rarepair Week 2017 [7]
Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V
Genre: Crushes, F/F, Happy Ending, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-15
Updated: 2017-07-15
Packaged: 2018-12-02 16:55:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,133
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11513544
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lilyliegh/pseuds/Lilyliegh
Summary: What makes Yuzu's boring, post-university life a bit more exciting is Rin, a mechanic making it large in Maiami City. More than anything, Yuzu wants to get close to Rin, but is her dull life anything worth sharing?





	Notes

**Author's Note:**

> for arc-v rarepair week - day 07: tomorrow. i interpreted the prompt as "future", and so this is a story about hopes and dreams (:

When Yuzu dragged herself out of university, she expected life to become a bit more peaceful. She expected to get a job in the field she’d slaved four years for; she aspired to be somewhere in the music field. She studied musical theory – that was the baseline for any musical arts degree, at least in her books.

She scans a package of rice and places it in a paper bag, wincing at the beep that goes through her brain every second of this long, six-hour shift.

She did not expect to be working a minimum-wage, retail job four years out of university.  _ That  _ was not in the course description. 

And yet here she is.

Yuzu sighs, throwing a suffering glance across the aisle at Yuuya. Like her, he is in the same, unfortunate boat: straight out of university with a four-year arts degree in theatre production, and he’s working at the same, insufferable grocery store. It was Yuzu who got the job first after realising that there was no work for her in  _ any  _ of the dimensional cities, and with her student loans coming in she was forced to pick the first job that came to mind. One month later, Yuuya followed after her.

“Four more hours,” Yuzu mutters. “You?”

“Five,” Yuuya says. When he’s done assisting the customer, he leans across the divider between their registers and says, “Will you wait for me after your shift? We can go grab ice cream on the way home.” He sneaks a glance out the window, where the sun is still high in the sky and beating down on them. “It’s hot enough for it.”

Yuzu doesn’t want to wait another hour for ice cream, and even if Yuuya is her best friend he knows that she needs to get home anyways. Her father will still need help with the filing and paperwork at the duel school, and she’s got to prepare dinner too. “Can’t tonight,” she tells him, “but let’s go tomorrow, all right?”

Pushing back off the divider between them, Yuuya flashes her with a bright smile. “Got it! And on that note, I think someone else needs your attention.”

Yuzu looks to her side and down the register aisle, where between the rows of candy and cheap gadgets there is a girl standing with a shopping basket. She only has a few items inside – she always does – and she smiles as she waits for Yuzu to beckon her close. At a grocery retail job, Yuzu didn’t expect to remember customers; it wasn’t like people came every day just to see her. However, she was sorely mistaken when she befriended Rin, a mechanic who bought groceries every day.

And every day, she came to find Yuzu.

Rin bounds forward with a bright smile, green curls bouncing around her glowing face. Everything about Rin sparkles: her orange eyes, her pink lips, and her rosy cheeks. Even dressed down in dirty overalls, Rin belongs on a stage like Yuzu. As she begins taking out her groceries, she tells Yuzu about her work.

“So there was this guy who came today with an old D-Wheel, and I swear it was from the original series, back when guys like Fudou Yuusei and Hogan Crow were building their own bikes. I don’t know how such a bike was still running – and it wasn’t really, I had to do a lot of work on it today – but still –”

Yuzu nods with rapt interest. Rin tells stories like poems, her words lyrics to Yuzu’s ears. Other than Yuuya, Rin is the only other person that keeps Yuzu working this meagre job. She comes every day without fail to buy her fresh produce and meat. She tells Yuzu about her job like it’s the best place on earth; it gives Yuzu a bit of hope that perhaps, once she gets out of her hell-job, she’ll find that wonderful work environment too.

As Rin sets down the last turnip, she looks up. “And how was your day?”

“Not going fast enough,” Yuzu says with a dry laugh. “I’ve been here for two hours and it feels like two years.”

“Hang in there then!” Rin tells her. She leans her head to the side to check the price, and she pays with a wad of cash. “Maybe you could treat yourself today.”

From across the aisle, Yuuya – still helping a customer with their groceries – says, “And that’s what I told her, but  _ no,  _ she wouldn’t listen to me.”

“Well no, you just wanted me to wait another hour so  _ you  _ could get ice cream,” Yuzu corrects. “The moment I’m out of here, I’m running away and not coming back until tomorrow.” Turning back to Rin, Yuzu adds, “It’s a good idea though …”

When she talks to Rin, it feels as if she’s known her as long as Yuuya. Rin has come every day, without fail, to all of Yuzu’s shifts. She buys extra groceries from Yuuya on the days Yuzu is off, and Yuzu is certain the two of them gossip while she’s away. She can’t be mad at Rin though: the girl is tough as nails and as smart as a whistle. She’s that rare student who got a job fresh out of uni and is making it large in the big world.

A pinprick of jealousy nestles in Yuzu’s heart. She  _ wants  _ to be like Rin who’s young and already got her life figured out. Even though she’s the same age as Yuzu, she has an apartment and a job, a steady income and a future. 

What does Yuzu have? A degree that can’t get here a job anywhere in the dimensional cities, and a retail job that has made her age more in six months than she has in twenty-three years. She’s still living with her father because she can’t afford to move out yet. Her life had seemed so promising in university even when she was drowning under term papers, and yet this job is even more life-draining than midterms and finals.

A finger flicks under her chin, startling her. Rin’s staring at her with such a deep glare that she seems to look  _ through  _ Yuzu and deep into her soul. “Hey,” Rin says, voice low. She giggles; now her voice is as light as the light green feathers twirled in her hair. “Chin up, buttercup.”

Rin has a saying for every moment.

Yuzu blushes scarlet, and coughs behind her hand before she does anything else embarrassing in front of Rin. This happens  _ every single day  _ and Yuzu can’t seem to stop her palpitating heart or flushed cheeks. It’s as if her body wants to betray her and make this day even more embarrassing. Can’t she behave for two seconds to enjoy the last happy moment of this shift?

Groceries paid for and packed up, Rin gathers the bags in her arms and gives Yuzu one last, bright smile. It’s so warm and genuine that even the sun can’t match how radiant Rin looks before the window. The food in her arms is all good, nutritious fruits and vegetables. Yuzu can see the muscles in Rin’s wiry arms and the toned shape of her legs through her overalls. Rin is  _ ripped  _ and still manages to look graceful.

“Have a good day, Yuzu-chan!”

Yuzu waves, face still flushed. “See you, Rin-chan.”

The moment Rin is out the door, Yuuya is up and over the counter with the biggest, shit-eating grin on his face. He tries to poke her red cheeks, and instead nearly tumbles into the aisle. He’s lucky neither of them have any customers to help, though he does catch the attention of their supervisor in customer service. With an apologetic wave, Yuuya rights himself.

He’s still grinning like an idiot.

“Yuuya, I swear to any and all gods –”

“You’re still blushing.”

“Shut up.” Yuzu pushes at her face, willing away any redness. “It’s stifling in here and they’re being stingy with the A/C … and maybe Rin is really cute.”

“It’s hard not to see when her face is right in front of yours,” Yuuya says. “Maybe you and  _ her  _ should go out for ice cream after work –”

That would be heavenly, but Yuzu has only a speck of courage to ask Rin out, and she needs to get home anyways and make dinner. The thought still hangs in her mind though. Tomorrow she could ask Rin out … tomorrow they could go for ice cream, sit on a bench together in the soft sunlight at a quaint park. Rin could talk for hours about her job and friends; they’d have more than a five-minute conversation at the till. Yuzu could tell her about her studies, about how she dreams of becoming a composer, how she even has some songs that she could sing or play for Rin …

It’s such a beautiful thought that Yuzu doesn’t realise someone is at her register until they cough lightly into their fist, and she’s drawn back to a reality she doesn’t want to face.

“So sorry to keep you waiting!” she apologises, and she continues her work.

For the next four hours, she keeps that thought in the forefront of her mind. When she leaves work, Yuuya comments how jubilant she looks. “Don’t you have a long commute back home?”

That’s an hour to daydream, she wants to say. Instead, she tells Yuuya, “I’m off work at last. Anything could be better than that.”

Chuckling, Yuuya stretches forward across his register, threatening to tip out of the booth. The corners of his red and green hair are beginning to stick out from how stuffy it is by the windows. “Lucky you. I would tease you about not waiting for me, but your dad probably needs you, and” – he wiggles his eyebrows – “maybe you’ll run into Rin-rin on the train.”

“That’s not her name!” Yuzu snaps, lunging for her fan by her register; she’d been fanning herself off with it during her shift, but it serves other purposes too. She can’t help the blush on her cheeks though, and how her mind leaps to  _ her  _ calling Rin a cutesy nickname. What would Rin call her in return? Zuzu?

Grabbing her purse, Yuzu hurries out the door with one last goodbye to Yuuya, who, from his register, calls out to her, “You should ask Rin-rin for her number tomorrow!”

It’s much too good of advice for her.

Outside, the streets are flooded with citizens milling through the shops. Maiami City is bright and colourful, a bit less fluorescent like Heartland City, but nonetheless a breathtaking sight. Yuzu weaves her way into the crowds and heads towards the city centre where the Maiami Central train station is. A massive structure, the building takes up the heart of the city. There are train lines shooting out of every angle of the building, something travelling up towards the clouds to reach diagonal cities, and other lines sprawling towards the outskirts and the ocean. 

It’s even more crowded inside the train centre. Yuzu squeezes between people as she passes through different levels of security and towards the local train lines. There are even more people waiting on the platforms, mostly prim and proper business-workers coming back from twelve-hour shifts. Yuzu in her pencil skirt and work blouse looks under-dressed standing next to them.

When the train comes into the station, the crowds flood forward and into the carts. Yuzu is taken along with the storm, shoved between people and briefcases; even in her heels, she can’t see over anyone’s head, and it’s suffocating being so close to the crowds. Everyone in the damn car is pushing her too, not even bothering to look for a seat but just trying to  _ fit  _ on the train car. It’s trips like this that make her think she might be claustrophobic. 

“Oh, you take this train too?”

Yuzu tries to look up, but the person standing behind her is tall and has their elbow shoved into her neck, so Yuzu has to glance down at the stranger’s toes. They’re the only one on this train in overalls, smeared with black and dirty along the hems, and –

“Rin?” Yuzu says.

“Who else would it be?” Rin says. “Are you squished and can’t look up? Here –” She reaches over Yuzu and asks the person if they could lower their arm. Somehow over the noise of the train rocketing through the city the person hears her and moves. Yuzu lifts her head as soon as she can, coming up to be nose-to-nose with Rin.

Oh.

She’s closer than Yuzu thought. 

“There we go! Now you’re not talking to my feet.” Rin laughs, a sound that Yuzu could write a composition to. 

“You live in the burbs too?”

Yuzu wouldn’t say she lives in the burbs, but she does live in a rather uniform part of town where all the houses look the same. The duel school is the only building that looks different because it’s both a commercial building and a house, but it still retains some of that sameness that makes the area look a bit too picture-perfect. What surprises Yuzu is that Rin lives so close. She always imagined Rin living on her own farm.

“At You Show Duel School,” Yuzu says –

And before she can say any more Rin interrupts her to say, “You live at that duel school? Aw, how lucky! I always wanted to go to one of those!” 

“It’s pretty neat,” Yuzu admits. “My dad’s the owner and his business is pretty successful. Yuuya, the other cashier, is a You Show graduate too, and he made my dad’s work famous when he invented Pendulum Summoning.” Her next words slip off her tongue: “If you want, why don’t you come see the duel school?”

The words are out before Yuzu can reel them back in.

Rin responds at once: “Sure! I’d love a tour!” Winking, she says to Yuzu, “The more you see, the more you’ll know!”

Yuzu can only hold her breath for the rest of the trip, pressed close to Rin because somehow the train workers think more people can fit in this cramped car. Rin is so close that Yuzu can feel her breath on her cheeks. Rin is the same height as her, and so no matter what Yuzu does she’s touching Rin’s fingers or brushing against her arms. Twice Yuzu steps on Rin’s toes; she probably can’t feel it through her steel-toed boots, but Yuzu still apologises profusely.

“Don’t like crowded spaces?” Rin says after a moment.

Yuzu shakes her head. 

“Me neither,” Rin says. “Bad memories.” She doesn’t elaborate, only tugs Yuzu closer. When the train arrives at their stop, Yuzu lets Rin pull her through the crowds and out the door. They step out onto a platform with only a few people on it, one of the few areas of town not congested at this hour. The artificial lighting hurts their eyes as they head up the stairs and out of the station, stepping out to a clear, sunny afternoon. 

For a moment, Yuzu just stands there. She notes that Rin is still holding her hand, that Rin is looking at her with her soft eyes, that the feathers in Rin’s hair are blowing in the wind and brushing against Yuzu’s cheeks.

“So where to?” Rin says.

With a choke, Yuzu remembers that Rin is coming with her.

Her crush.

Coming home.

With her.

Never before has Yuzu had such wild butterflies in her stomach. Quelling them with a hand pressed into her gut, Yuzu motions with her head towards the eastern side of the town. “See that big, white, somewhat tacky-looking building?”

“Yeah?”

“That’s my house.”

“Oh.” A pause. “Well come on then! I’m dying to know what you live like!”

Yuzu isn’t. She’s going to come home to her dad snuggling her, to paperwork on her desk, and to the wonderful question of ‘What’s for dinner tonight?’ Yuzu is a bit embarrassed to have Rin over when she’s still living at home, even if it’s normal for students to still live with their parents. Maybe it’s because  _ nothing  _ in Yuzu’s life feels adultish, and meanwhile Rin is supporting herself and contributing to society.

Maybe it’s because Rin is a written composition and Yuzu is a misplaced note in an incomplete song.

Yuzu holds Rin’s hand a bit tighter, telling herself over and over again that it’s only because she doesn’t want her to get lost … even if this is Rin’s neighbourhood too. Rin’s probably even walked by the duel school before, so why is she leading her along like a puppy? The more Yuzu thinks, the more her heart threatens to jump out of her throat. She tries to focus on the sun and the clouds, on the green grass around her. Anything to calm her down. 

“Where do you live?” Yuzu asks. “You said you lived around here.”

Rin takes a moment to look at the replicated houses lining the streets, and after a moment she points back towards the west end. “I live over there. I’d try to describe my house for you, but it kinda looks like everyone else’s …” With a chuckle, she adds, “Except for the motorbike.”

Yuzu has seen Rin’s motorbike before. Once or twice, perhaps when Rin isn’t working before she comes and visits Yuzu, Rin comes to the grocery store on her bike. It’s a slim, sleek beast, aerodynamic and beautifully crafted. Yuzu doesn’t know much about motorcycles, but she can appreciate what Rin has crafted. The bike is shimmering white and gold, tinged green in areas, with two big bells along the handlebars. It’s one of the fastest bikes in the city, and legend has it …

“I built it myself.”

Yuzu sighs in adoration. Not only is the bike a sight to behold, but it was lovingly crafted by Rin herself.

In comparison, when Yuzu gets to her house she tries to feel proud of it. The building is the only thing different on this street with its many uneven levels and uniquely-shaped rooms. There are glass walls where big, green letters scream ‘YOU SHOW DUEL SCHOOL’, and a little board tacked to the side reads, ‘The home of Entertainment Dueling and Pendulum Summoning’. Wherever Yuzu looks there is colour attacking her vision; she can’t focus on anything except how Rin stares at her house for a solid minute.

“You have a lovely house,” Rin says at last. “A real beaut!”

Ignoring the blush on her cheeks rivalling the pink of her hair, Yuzu takes Rin up the steps and into the lobby. Her father is done teaching for the day and has closed up the classrooms. She can hear him upstairs humming to himself. Yuzu takes Rin behind one of the desks and up a set of stairs towards the main room.

The staircase opens up to a living room furnished with bright, wooden accents and cosy, beige furniture. Splotches of colour line the walls and along the carpeted floor; to the right is the kitchen, and open-style space with an island counter. Standing in the kitchen is her father, still in his tracksuit. He has two cans of beans in his hands, eyebrows furrowed as if he’s trying to figure something out.

“Dad –”

“Yuzu!” he says. The cans are dropped in favour of embracing her in a tight hug that knocks the air from her lungs. Yuzu coughs, patting her father on the back so she can breathe again. With one last squeeze, he lets her go and holds her at arms length. “How was work – Oh! Oh, you brought a guest.”

Rin holds out her hand before Yuzu has a chance to introduce her to her father. “Rin,” she says. Yuzu has yet to meet anyone that isn’t on a first-name basis with Rin.

“Hiiragi Shuuzou,” her father says. “Welcome to You Show Duel School!” 

And like that, the two of them kick off a vibrant conversation. In Yuzu’s mind, she imagined this introduction being a bit more awkward for Rin. However, Rin fits right in with her father. The moment Rin brings up that she’s a Synchro Duelist, Shuuzou is all over her with questions about Riding Duels and Synchro Summoning, things that aren’t taught at You Show. In turn, Shuuzou talks about Entertainment Duels and Pendulum Summoning. The two of them leave Yuzu in the dust with their chatter

She lets them continue one with their talk until she realises they  _ won’t  _ stop, and she clears her throat to grab their attention. “You like pork?” she asks Rin. “I can cook some up with ginger, and there’s green beans there that we can have too. I’ve got watermelon in the fridge for dessert.” With a laugh, she says, “You and my dad can hang out while I chop this up.”

Rin is beside her in an instant, wispy hair tickling Yuzu’s jaw. “Oh no, I’d much prefer cooking with you. We can chat over dinner. Besides” – Rin rolls up her sleeves, muscles flexing – “I’m a cook too.”

Yuzu wants to marry Rin right now.

Instead, she stands with her mouth open for a moment before she promptly closes it and sets herself before the counter to get out the beans. She instructs Rin round the kitchen to find the pork and ginger in the fridge. As they work, Yuzu sings to herself. Rin sings along once she picks up the rhythm. It isn’t a song one would hear on the radio, but instead a melody that popped into Yuzu’s head when she was standing next to Rin. If her life were a movie, Yuzu thinks this would be the soundtrack of their time together: light and breezy, a comfortable melody wrapping them in a pleasant tune.

Rin knows all the notes to her song. 

When food is ready, Yuzu sets it on her best dishes and brings it to the table where her father sits with a tall stack of paperwork. “New applications,” he says when Yuzu raises an eyebrow at the stack. “We’re popular, aren’t we?”

“I’m from City,” Rin pipes up, “and even over there your school is famous!”

_ That’s  _ a piece of news Yuzu hasn’t heard before. Rin’s … from another city? Yuzu assumed she was a local here, and their lives had just never crossed until Yuzu got her job. However, that detail explains why Rin is a Synchro Duelist and interested in Riding Duels, and why she dreamed of being a mechanic.

“You grew up in City then? Where at?” Yuzu and Yuuya have been to the Friendship Cup in City for several tournaments during their youth. Yuzu still remembers the tall skyscrapers shooting up from the slums and the wide highways snaking through the city. The Tops and Commons were abolished a few years ago, but during Rin’s youth she must’ve lived around that toxic environment …

“In a nice little house with my family and friends. Yuugo, another Synchro duelist, and I grew up together.” She doesn’t mention if she’s Tops or Commons, and by that Yuzu knows which one she is.

With a smile, Rin digs into her meal. She eats as if she hasn’t had a meal all day, and when she looks up from her dishes she exclaims, “You’re an amazing cook! Are you sure you aren’t a Cooking Duelist too?”

Yuzu laughs. “Well, you did help. With all those great ingredients you buy, I’m sure you have delicious meals too.”

A strange expression crosses her face: her eyes grow dimmer and her lips purse together. It lasts but a minute before she’s laughing at a joke Shuuzou tells her, but the memory is stuck in Yuzu’s mind like a broken record. That little slip in Rin’s exuberant face, the way the light left her eyes – Yuzu can’t even imagine a life in the slums. She’s grown up with parents, a house, friends surrounding her. Did Rin even have half the life she had?

Yuzu wants to pinch herself. Rin has a life and  _ more.  _ Who is she to pity a girl with a university degree and a job that she loves? Rin lives on her own, making even more of her dreams come true, and Yuzu is still struggling with step one of her new, adult life.

The conversations moves on without her once again, and while Rin and her father happily gobble up the food, Yuzu pushes her dinner away after only a few bites.

Not wanting to seem rude, Yuzu says, “I caught a snack before I left work, so I don’t have much of an appetite.” A hollow laugh. “Rin, I don’t know if you’ll want to watch me do paperwork …” She leaves the sentence hanging.

Rin understands her, the wise girl that she is. “Oh no worries, I can see myself out.”

But Yuzu isn’t going to let her get away that fast. “Oh, I can walk you home. It’s no big deal, and it’s not like I want to get started on that work right away.” She winks at her father who rubs his temples and groans. 

“Don’t dawdle, Yuzu. It’s going to get late soon.”

“Rin lives just a few blocks away. I won’t  _ dawdle.” _

The girls clean up their dishes and leave them to dry. Yuzu takes Rin back down the stairs to where they’d left their shoes by the entrance to the duel school. All the while, Rin talks animatedly about her own experiences as a duelist. She’d helped Yuugo compete in one of the Friendships Cups, though she herself wasn’t big on competitions so much as she wanted to just ride and duel freely. It isn’t until they are out of the house that her words begin to soften, until her voice is so quiet that the breeze snatches it away.

“Thanks for dinner,” she says after a moment. “I’ve never had dinner with a … with a family before.” A pause. “It’s nice.”

The words are dull notes that ring in Yuzu’s ears.

_ It’s nice.  _

Yuzu has had hundreds – no,  _ thousands  _ – of dinners with her father. She’s cooked with him every since she was tall enough to stand at the counter and peel vegetables with him. No matter what their schedules were, they always ate dinner together. It seems so … sad to imagine Rin eating alone.

“I’m glad you liked it,” Yuzu says, throat dry. She clears it. “You should come over for dinner more – if you’d like, that is! I don’t know if you like –”

“I do.” Rin’s eyes are shimmering with tears in the setting sun. “I really do like your family.” With a sigh, Rin says, “That food I buy every day … That isn’t for me, but for the children in the City. It’s better there, it really is, but it’s not great. I know about the lives they live and they aren’t fun. There aren’t as many smiles, and there’s no sparks of happiness. I’ve got to give them something, after everything that’s been done for me.”

“You feed them.”

“They feed themselves,” Rin corrects. “I just bring the food.” With a soft laugh, she adds, “They could all be Cooking Duelists if they wanted to.”

The moment is hollow; for once, Yuzu wishes she could hear the incessant beep of her register solely because there is  _ no sound  _ and it’s deafening. Between Yuzu and Rin is a new chasm to jump over, a new step in Yuzu’s life that she can’t even seem to cross. Rin seems further away than ever, even further than Yuzu’s chances of getting any part of her life together –

A flick on her chin. “Chin up, buttercup.” Rin smiles at her, crossing the chasm between them. “Why do you look so down when you’ve got so much going for you?”

_ Maybe because Rin is perfect and she is one of many defected young adults in modern society.  _

“We’ve both got so much going for us,” Rin says. “I see you every day, and you see me too. We’re in sync, in rhythm to one another. Isn’t that nice?”

_ Nice.  _

Rin’s voice is music to her ears. “Someday, we should go to City together. I’ll show you all the children I meet and who I deliver food to, and you’ll see the wonderful dishes they put together. I could even take you on my bike. And then” – she leans closer as if she’s about to tell Yuzu a secret – “I could see your life too. I want to hear you sing, want to meet your friends and family. You’re a duelist, aren’t you?”

Yuzu nods.

“The pieces of your life are coming together, right?”

Yuzu nods.

“They don’t fit perfectly together,  _ but  _ –” Rin takes her hand, smooths her fingers out. They’re at the crosswalk outside of a park Yuzu played in as a child. Cherry blossoms flutter off the trees and catch in her rosy hair. Petals ghost her arms and legs. This moment feels like it should belong in a movie. 

“The composition is always complete.” 

Yuzu squeezes Rin’s hands, and Rin squeezes back. Their eyes lock, noses touching. Yuzu breathes in and out to the rhythm of Rin’s heart. She can  _ hear  _ her heartbeat like it’s a song she can sing to. It’s a song Yuzu’s had on her mind for many months now, a beat she no longer has to whisper under her breath when Rin leaves the shop.

The moment breaks when Rin playfully pushes her back and says, “Hey, give me your phone so I can add my number. We can keep in touch that way.”

Fumbling with the device, Yuzu hands it over. Rin punches her number away in it before returning it back. “We’ll always see each other, right, but maybe we should hang out? Don’t you agree?”

“I do,” Yuzu says. She coughs, and adds, “We should go out for ice cream … tomorrow. It’s going to be hot, so we’ll need something to cool us down –”

“Got it!” Rin gives her a push on the shoulder, and says, “You’ve gotta get home, don’t you? All that paper to push. I shouldn’t take  _ all  _ of your time.”

“It’s fine,” Yuzu says. She raises a hand to the place where Rin touched her, a dusting of pink along her cheekbones. “Thanks, Rin.”

“Don’t mention it!”

After one last glance, Rin begins to step back. She keeps smiling brighter than the sun, green hair bouncing in the gentle breeze. Her feathers catch the spinning cherry blossoms, which she threads through her hair with long, wispy fingers. Yuzu stays still, eyes following Rin.

Finally, at the edge of the sidewalk where she’ll turn to head home, Rin lifts her chin up and shouts, “See you tomorrow! May your future be bright!”

Rin has a saying for everything. 


End file.
